Railroad gondola cars are typically open or uncovered cars and they are used to carry a large variety of industrial cargo. High side gondola cars or hopper cars are especially useful for transporting coal, particularly in unit trains, to destinations where the cars can be readily and quickly emptied through bottom discharge gates or by rotary dumping of the cars.
Gondola cars are subject to severe conditions when they are being loaded and unloaded as well as during travel over the railway track. The applied stresses are particularly high where the side wall posts are connected to body bolsters, cross bearers, cross ties, side sills and top side chords and where internal body braces are connected to the car floor and side walls. These structural areas of the car are of concern not only in cars made all of steel but are of even greater concern in cars having a steel underframe and an aluminum body because aluminum has a significantly lower strength and ductility than steel. There is thus a need for structural improvements in gondola cars so that the railroads and the customers have durable and reliable cars which meet their needs.